Modern hearing assistance devices, such as hearing aids, typically include a digital signal processor in communication with a microphone and receiver. Such designs are adapted to perform a great deal of processing on sounds received by the microphone. These designs can be highly programmable and may use specialized signal processing techniques for acoustic feedback cancellation and a host of other signal processing activities.
Signal processing approaches can use a substantial amount of the available signal processing capabilities of a digital signal processor (DSP). All of the processing requires power as well. Designers frequently have to provide reduced or minimized computational designs to conserve power and to be able to accommodate all of the signal processing that the design must perform. Certain functions, such as acoustic feedback cancellation can be compromised in the effort to reduce processing overhead.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for methods and apparatus for improved signal processing, and in particular for improved acoustic feedback cancellation for hearing assistance devices.